Info about New Arc Line: Official game description: _During Early Access, the game will only be available in English. More translations will be added later._ The New World looms on the horizon, on its shore the shining city of progress, and the last beacon of hope in your search for a cure to your family's fatal disease - New Arc. You arrive to this foreign land by steerage of a steamship, cramped with thousands of other immigrants, a stranger in a strange land, full of wonder. But you will soon discover that the city's beauty runs only skin-deep and all you find is rot beneath the golden facade. Dark smoke from the factories chokes the skies, segregation, inequality, and corruption run rampant. You will have to rise from the very bottom, make tough decisions, and get your hands dirty if you are to succeed - and you must, no matter the cost! Craft technopunk gear or master the arcane arts, fight, steal or smooth-talk your way to the top and become the hero or villain you want to be. You will not have to face the trials of this world alone, however; find your companions and gather your party, make foes and allies, fall in love, get involved in a massive conspiracy, and change the course of history forever. Will you rise to the occasion? **Become the Hero or the Villain you want to be** ------------------------------------------------- Create your own character as a Human or Elf, choose your gender, background and appearance. Keep in mind that inhabitants of this world might have their own prejudices and will treat you differently depending on your choices. **Gather your Party** --------------------- You won’t be alone on these shores. Meet & recruit a diverse cast of characters, learn their stories, face their demons together and help them grow, or use them for your own gain and discard them as fits your schemes. Who knows, maybe you will even find your true love! **Master Technology or Magic** ------------------------------ Will you master the secrets of Magic to incinerate enemies as a Hellfire occultist, curse them with mystical Voodoo abilities, or assist your allies as a Celestial sage? Or will you rather cast aside the obsolete ways and become a Steampunk mechanic, Dieselpunk engineer or Teslapunk scientist, and turn your character into a walking steam-powered fortress? **Fight for your Right** ------------------------ Command your party in turn-based tactical battles. Fight head-on and brute-force your way through encounters or observe and analyze each situation and come up with cunning strategies to conquer even seemingly overwhelming odds. There’s a plethora of skills, spells, crafting recipes and consumables at your disposal to turn the tide of battle in your favor. **Manifest Your Destiny** ------------------------- Make a name for yourself, influence countless lives for better or worse, and watch the consequences of your choices unfold. You may start out as only a poor immigrant, but soon your exploits will fill the front pages of newspapers and the events you set in motion will change the fate of the New World forever. Release date: 26 Nov, 2024 Categories: RPG, Turn-based Combat, Tactical Combat, Party-based Combat, Character Customization, Choice-based Narrative, Crafting, Inventory Management - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Unique steampunk/magic setting (weight 0.76): The game features a unique and well-executed steampunk/magic setting, drawing comparisons to Arcanum and other classic RPGs. The world-building, art style, and overall aesthetic are consistently praised for their immersive blend of technology and fantasy elements. - Promising and fun gameplay (weight 0.72): Many reviewers express that the game shows great potential, is fun to play, and has a solid core. Initial impressions are positive, with reviewers looking forward to future content and development. - Engaging story, great writing (weight 0.69): The game features well-written dialogue, an engaging story, and high-quality voice acting. The characters are well-developed and the conversations are immersive, contributing positively to the overall experience. - Detailed and immersive world (weight 0.39): The game world is detailed, immersive, and visually stunning, with well-designed environments and impressive graphics. Reviewers appreciate the attention to detail and the overall atmosphere. - Solid early access experience (weight 0.22): The game is praised for its solid foundation, especially considering its early access status. Reviewers appreciate the fair price, the respectable amount of content, and the relatively few critical bugs. - Interesting side quests (weight 0.12): The game features interesting and well-designed side quests that offer choices and impact outcomes. These quests often tie into the main narrative and provide meaningful experiences beyond simple combat. - Morally ambiguous choices (weight 0.06): The game offers morally ambiguous choices when siding with factions, creating a nuanced portrayal of the conflict. Players can make impactful decisions and even play as morally reprehensible characters. - World feels alive (weight 0.05): The game world feels alive, busy, and lived-in, with a high level of interactivity. Reviewers appreciate that the world does not feel dead or like cardboard. Common complaints: - Significant technical and performance issues (weight 0.57): The game suffers from numerous technical issues, including frequent crashes, freezes, stutters, and performance drops. These problems significantly hinder the gameplay experience and need to be addressed. - Repetitive, easy, shallow combat (weight 0.39): The combat system is criticized for being repetitive, easy, and lacking tactical depth. Enemies have simplistic AI, and the player often becomes overpowered, making encounters feel inconsequential. - Missing key features/options (weight 0.33): The game is missing key features such as full voice acting, controller support, and localization for multiple languages. These omissions limit accessibility and immersion for many players. - Limited character customization/progression (weight 0.3): Character creation and customization are limited, with few race and class options available. The character progression system also feels unrewarding, with minimal impact from leveling up. - Slow and confusing early game (weight 0.22): The game suffers from pacing issues, particularly in the early game, which is described as slow, confusing, and lacking a strong hook. Some reviewers found the game tedious and unengaging. - Weak story and dialogue (weight 0.2): The dialogue is criticized for being clunky, generic, and poorly paced, with excessive text and inconsistent voice acting. The story itself is described as disjointed and confusing. - Poor inventory management system (weight 0.19): The inventory system lacks essential features like sorting, categorization, and clear item comparison. This makes managing items cumbersome and frustrating for players. - Quest bugs and tracking issues (weight 0.08): Players have encountered quest-related bugs that prevent progression, such as quests not registering or key items not appearing. Quest tracking is also inadequate. - Insignificant leveling system (weight 0.08): Leveling up feels insignificant, providing minimal benefits and underwhelming skill upgrades. This makes character progression feel unrewarding. - Unrewarding sidequests, short length (weight 0.07): Some sidequests lack compelling resolutions and feel anticlimactic. The game's overall length is also considered short, making the extensive reading feel burdensome. - Imbalanced, impersonal character backgrounds (weight 0.05): The main character backgrounds are imbalanced and don't provide meaningful story or reactivity in-game. The writing and voicelines feel generic and impersonal. - Awkward camera controls (weight 0.05): The camera controls are awkward and uncomfortable, restricting player control and perspective. This negatively impacts exploration and interaction with the game world. - Poorly designed user interface (weight 0.04): The user interface is poorly designed and lacks user-friendliness. Many quality-of-life features are missing, making navigation and interaction difficult. - Unfavorable comparisons to other games (weight 0.03): Some reviews negatively compare the game to other CRPGs like Baldur's Gate 3, suggesting it feels like a budget version or an asset flip. These reviews lack specific feedback and may be influenced by hype surrounding other titles. Gameplay feedback: - Tactical combat; steampunk versus magic (weight 0.31): The game features turn-based tactical combat in a steampunk/dieselpunk setting where magic and technology are in conflict. This conflict influences gameplay, character classes, and story decisions, creating a unique blend of fantasy and industrial elements reminiscent of games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity. - Classic CRPG with impactful choices (weight 0.21): The game offers a classic CRPG experience with choices that impact the narrative, skill checks in dialogues, and multiple paths. While the gameplay mechanics are considered decent, some reviewers find them somewhat shallow, suggesting a need for more depth. - Unique skill check and combat system (weight 0.1): The game uses a d100-based skill check system, where base stats and environmental skills influence dice rolls. Combat skills are tied to equipment, encouraging experimentation and loot collection. - Confusing card-based spell crafting (weight 0.06): Mages use a card-based system called "Reality Rift" to craft new spells, but some reviewers found the mechanics confusing or lacking clear explanations. There is potential in the system, but it needs improvement in terms of usability and clarity. - Limited content in Early Access (weight 0.05): The Early Access version includes the prologue and first chapter, offering a limited amount of content with a level cap. This indicates that the game is still in development and more content is expected in the future. - Magic corruption mechanic (weight 0.04): Using darker magic fills a corruption meter, potentially transforming the character. This mechanic adds a risk-reward element to using powerful spells. - Pickpocketing mini-game (weight 0.03): The game features a pickpocketing mini-game with no consequences for failing the initial skill check. This encourages looting and frequent secondary-skill checks. Performance notes: - Graphical glitches and visual issues (weight 0.17): Some reviewers noted graphical glitches such as blurry textures, flickering, shadow pop-in, clipping, and poor lip-syncing. These issues detract from the visual experience and immersion. - Crashes and character-stuck instances (weight 0.17): Several reviewers encountered crashes and instances where characters became stuck, hindering gameplay progression. These issues appear to be more prevalent in specific areas, such as the Leper Clinic, suggesting potential problems with level design or scripting in those locations. - Inconsistent sound design quality (weight 0.02): The sound design received mixed feedback, with some effects praised while others were described as poor. The soundtrack was noted as energetic but repetitive, which may become tiresome over extended play sessions. - Repetitive NPC dialogue/chat icons (weight 0.01): Reviewers found the dialogue of non-essential NPCs to be repetitive and the chat icons unnecessary, making it difficult to identify important characters. This negatively impacts the player's ability to navigate the game world and interact with key characters. - Animation speed inconsistencies (weight 0.01): Some animation speeds are off, with characters, especially Giants, moving slower than their leg animations. - Long initial loading times (weight 0.01): Initial loading times are a bit long, but subsequent loading is faster. Recommendations: - Needs more polish/development (weight 0.91): A common concern is the game's current state of incompleteness and lack of polish. Reviewers frequently mention bugs, performance issues, and missing content, leading to recommendations to wait for further updates or purchase at a discount. Some reviewers even refunded the game due to these issues. - High potential, promising foundation (weight 0.88): Many reviewers highlight the game's potential, citing a strong foundation and unique concept. They express optimism for future development and believe the game could become a standout title in the genre if the developers continue on their current path. This sentiment is frequently mentioned, indicating a widespread positive outlook despite the early access state. - Anticipation for future content (weight 0.76): Many reviewers express excitement for future content, updates, and the full release of the game. They are eager to see how the game evolves and plan to revisit it after significant improvements. This anticipation suggests a strong interest in the game's long-term development. - Support the developers (weight 0.69): Some reviewers suggest purchasing the game to support the developers and their vision, even if the game is not yet fully polished. They view the purchase as an investment in the game's future development. This indicates a level of trust and appreciation for the developers' efforts. - Recommended for specific RPG fans (weight 0.18): Reviewers often recommend the game to fans of specific RPG subgenres or titles like Baldur's Gate 3, Arcanum, and steampunk settings. They suggest that players who enjoy these elements will likely appreciate the game's unique blend of fantasy and technology. This targeted recommendation highlights the game's appeal to a niche audience. - Strongly not recommended currently (weight 0.12): Some reviewers express strong dissatisfaction, stating they cannot recommend the game in its current state due to various issues like poor writing, boring gameplay, or fundamental control problems. Some even consider the game unplayable or not worth the price. These negative sentiments indicate significant concerns that need to be addressed. - Need for language localization (weight 0.03): A few reviewers mention the need for localization in different languages, particularly Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese. They express hope for future translations to enhance the game's accessibility and enjoyment for a wider audience. This point highlights the importance of language support for global appeal. Other player notes: - Early Access with limited content (weight 0.23): The game is currently in Early Access, with limited content available, including only a portion of the main storyline, a few classes and races, and the first act or town. Players are waiting for more content, classes, and features to be added, with the full game expected to release in late 2025. - Steampunk world with magic conflicts (weight 0.22): The game is set in a unique world that blends steampunk and magic, drawing heavy inspiration from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. The story involves conflicts between technology and magic, humans and elves, and other races, set against a backdrop of industrial revolution aesthetics and a global cataclysm involving dragons. - Active development and planned updates (weight 0.06): The developers are actively collecting feedback and planning updates, including new content and translations into other languages. Reviewers intend to retest the game after major updates and hope for a Russian interface to attract more players. - Actively seeking player feedback (weight 0.04): The developers are actively seeking feedback on Steam and Discord, and should continue to gather as much feedback as possible, especially before leaving Early Access, using play-tests to attract new players. - Lacks consequences for actions (weight 0.02): The game lacks consequences for actions like corruption or stealing, and the player cannot go mad or kill everyone. This reduces the sense of player agency and immersion within the game world. - Obscure lore needs explanation (weight 0.02): The game's lore is obscure, and an in-game lore section would greatly improve player understanding and engagement with the world. This would provide context and depth to the game's setting and narrative. - Missing save limit options (weight 0.02): The game lacks the ability to limit the number of quick saves and auto-saves. This can lead to save bloat and potentially impact performance or player experience. Emotions: No emotions}